Sathar now official

[thol]

that is the worst claymation Sathar i have ever seen.

 

[Piratecat]

Darrin, any chance that the level adjustment on the Dhamrin is misprinted? Considering their ability adjustments and effective feats, they seem awfully strong for a +0.

If not, could you please explain what I'm missing?

Thanks!

 

[thol]

I have to agree with Piratecat.

Also, just as an aside, it seems many races/monsters are often weakened to allow them to be a "playable" race. I think they should be written up as they were originally intended to be. A Sathar should never be played as a character anyway, and if someone wants to, they can easily drop an ability here or there as the GM sees fit.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Darrin, any chance that the level adjustment on the Dhamrin is misprinted? Considering their ability adjustments and effective feats, they seem awfully strong for a +0.

Yes, there is a chance! Misprint would imply that it was turned in correctly and then changed for the worse. I recently went back to the original file and found that the opposite was true - it was turned in as +0. My goof. This is a simple case of not catching it before it went out the door. I remember leaving that for later so that I could come up with a proper level adjustment and then forgetting to look at it again before turning it in. There are a couple things about the file that aren't perfect, such as the placement of the sathar pic, so I'm going to recommend a +1 level adjustment for the dhamrin along with the other changes. As for whether it gets updated is another matter...

Also, just as an aside, it seems many races/monsters are often weakened to allow them to be a "playable" race. I think they should be written up as they were originally intended to be. A Sathar should never be played as a character anyway, and if someone wants to, they can easily drop an ability here or there as the GM sees fit.

I don't really consider the sathar to be weakened, and I certainly don't recommend them as player characters. But I don't think they should be treated as monsters either. Sathar that you encounter will have character classes, which is why I chose to design them as a race. My recommendation for a campaign using sathar is to create 3 or 4 "stock" sathar with PC races and then create whatever specific individuals you will need.

that is the worst claymation Sathar i have ever seen.

Well it isn't like I'm an artist, nor was I paid for it. I felt that the sathar deserved some art, so I found a painted sathar mini, took a picture of it, and then spent about 5 hours photoshopping it in an attempt to make it look like art rather than a picture. I could go into a long list of changes I made to the original image, but I'm afraid it would be terribly boring. Sorry you don't approve.

 

[Morgenstern]

Hi Darrin ,

Overall I like it. I do miss the sleep cycle thing (out of a Dragon/Ares article I think), but that's not a damning complaint. I would hope the Sathar are largely playable, as I also recall there being an offshoot race with pretty much the same physiology, but a different temperment and skin coloration...?

...In fact, I think the Sathar figure may have been painted up as one of the playable critters ...

 

[Darrin Drader]

Hi Darrin ,

Hi!

Overall I like it. I do miss the sleep cycle thing (out of a Dragon/Ares article I think), but that's not a damning complaint.

As with many projects I've worked on where there's some existing history, I had to make the decision of how much extraneous material to include. While I do look for such material, in this case I felt that it was unnecessary flavor. Of course the nice thing about gaming material is that you are free to incorporate whatever other material that exists back into it if you so choose.

I would hope the Sathar are largely playable, as I also recall there being an offshoot race with pretty much the same physiology, but a different temperment and skin coloration...?

The sathar are a balanced PC race, so you can certainly play them by changing their disposition. If you choose to go that route, you may want to lose the exploding nanites since that would preclude any chance of bringing you back from death's door.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Did sathar use to suffer penalties for having gone almost 30 days without sleep? Any non-game penalties (eg irritation)? Did they have to sleep for 15 days afterwards?

 

[Darrin Drader]

Did sathar use to suffer penalties for having gone almost 30 days without sleep? Any non-game penalties (eg irritation)? Did they have to sleep for 15 days afterwards?

This may have been in the Dragon magazine article, but there is nothing indicating this from the original box set.

 

[thol]

This may have been in the Dragon magazine article, but there is nothing indicating this from the original box set.

There was a lot more detail on the Sathar in the Knight Hawks modules published by TSR, Face of the Enemy and The War Machine. It went into Sathar origins and their culture a bit more, as well as into their dreamsleep cycles, technology, and their penchant for suicide. Face of the Enemy has the most info, in sections Epsilon .4 and .8.

I'll post some excerpts later on.

And I meant no offense about the art. It was meant as a more humorous remark. The rest of the document is put together well.

 

[Darrin Drader]

And I meant no offense about the art. It was meant as a more humorous remark. The rest of the document is put together well.

No worries. Just remember that us game designers frequently lurk on these boards and have egos that bruise easily.